A Westchester County native has combined history, morality and his own creative awakenings to create a sci-fi comic book that takes place not in outer space but in the 1980s South Bronx.
Eddie Lema is the writer and creator of “End of Zed,” the story of a robot that crashes in the South Bronx severely damaged and with no memory. Zed must wander the streets taking in everything around him. Zed experiences the joy and healing power of hip-hop music and discovers graffiti. He witnesses rage, sadness and humor and wrestles with knowing whether humans are inherently good or evil.
The story follows the “write what you know” adage, Lema said. In bringing “End of Zed” to life, Lema drew upon his own memories, as well as historical research and perspectives from people who lived in the Bronx in the 80s. His current job with Con Edison turned out to be useful in that arena, he said. “One good thing about working for ConEd, you know everyone from every borough.”
Growing up in Westchester with many relatives in New York City, Lema said going between the suburbs and city “opened up a lot of things for me.” In an experience he recreates with Zed, Lema recalled his first time seeing graffiti painted on the side of a train: “I knew that this was going to be my style,” he said.
As for the time period, Lema set the story in what he called a “poignant time in the city history,” which saw both the start of the crack epidemic and the growth of hip-hop. Like Zed, he absorbed everything he saw around him.
“There’s a lot of me in this book,” he said. “Music gave me my voice. Graffiti gave me my vision.”
The comic art community
Lema said he has always been a creative type. “One of my first recollections of finding worth in this world was when I was drawing and being artistic,” he said, adding that art “filled a lot of gaps that I had in my life.”
He attended a two-year art college and studied both traditional and computer art, which was in its infancy at that time. Lema went on to found an illustration company, which designed instruction manuals for various companies over 17 years. Later, he found his way into a position at Con Edison’s training facility, where he creates interactive e-books and augmented and virtual reality training products used for employee training, a job he enjoys that plays to many different skill sets.
Lema said although he has a fulfilling work and family life, he felt the need to carve out dedicated time to pursue a true passion project — and he has a system for holding himself accountable so that “I want to do this someday” turns into “I’ve done it.”
At the start of each year, Lema takes on a creative project to be completed before the year is up — and most importantly, it must have a tangible result.
To get things started, a few years back, he took all his old graffiti art pieces and turned them digital, created an Instagram account and started to build a community of artists. The following year, he took the original idea for “End of Zed,” which had been in his mind for a long time, and turned the story into a screenplay, which he had never done before. He studied story arc and structure and finished the screenplay at the end of 2023.
To kick off 2024, Lema realized the screenplay would transfer well into a comic strip format, so he found a team of creatives to bring the story to life. “I really wanted to give this a professional look,” he said.
Lema and his team took six months to create the comic and then began marketing it. He set a Kickstarter goal of $1,500 and ended up exceeding it, gaining valuable support from fellow comic artists in the process.
“That’s the best part of it, the audience that I gained from it and the community of being in the indie scene,” Lema said.
He is planning for “End of Zed” to be a three-part series, with digital copies of Part 1 coming soon to his Kickstarter backers and physical copies printing in January. Lema said he has appeared on over 30 indie review podcasts to promote the book, and throughout the process, strangers who have been in his shoes generously offered their Kickstarter tips and ideas for marketing and social media. “I’ve never met a community that is so supportive,” said Lema.
Dedicating the time aside from his family and day job to pursue his passion has been critical to his success, Lema said, and he encourages everyone to do the same.
“All of us have a primal need to tell a story,”said Lema. To have a finished product for the idea that has been germinating in his imagination for years, “It was a dream come true.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
